I, the LORD God of Israel, promised in the past that your family and your clan would serve me as priests for all time. But now I say that I won't have it any longer! Instead, I will honor those who honor me, and I will treat with contempt those who despise me.

God says, "I will save those who love me and will protect those who acknowledge me as LORD.

"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them."

Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them.

for the Father himself loves you. He loves you because you love me and have believed that I came from God.

We love because God first loved us.

So remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, "I don't enjoy life."

I have not spoken in secret or kept my purpose hidden. I did not require the people of Israel to look for me in a desolate waste. I am the LORD, and I speak the truth; I make known what is right."

Turn to the LORD and pray to him, now that he is near.

Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.

"Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock.

When Jesus noticed this, he was angry and said to his disciples, "Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

But if any of you lack wisdom, you should pray to God, who will give it to you; because God gives generously and graciously to all.